Fishing activity is distributed between latitudes of -41 and -48 degrees where target species are located. Fishing activity within 20 nautical miles of Argentina’s EEZ (not including the Falkland Islands) from January 2018 to April 2021. Most of these vessels congregated in stretches of sea eastward from Argentina’s San Matias Gulf and San Jorge Gulf, and the majority of fishing occurred between January and May, which is the best time to catch mature shortfin squid. There were also nearly 200 vessels from South Korea, Spain and Taiwan that fished for 251,000 visible hours. About 30% of these Chinese vessels also fished around the Galápagos Islands, according to Oceana. Based on publicly available AIS records, Oceana found that 433 Chinese vessels conducted nearly 680,000 visible fishing hours between January 2018 and April 2021.

The shortfin squid fishery in and of itself is the second-largest in the world, generating an average of $597 million each year for South America’s economy.įoreign vessels are not allowed to fish within Argentina’s EEZ without proper authorization, but they can legally fish beyond the EEZ in the high seas. The industry is mostly driven by the catch of four species: Argentine shortfin squid, Argentine red shrimp, Argentine hake ( Merluccius hubbsi), and Patagonian grenadier ( Macruronus magellanicus). ‘A pretty major violation’Īrgentina’s commercial fishing industry constitutes 3.4% of the country’s gross domestic product and is worth about $2.7 billion. “Six hundred thousand hours - that’s just a large amount of time in which there’s no accountability for the fishing vessels in this area.” A South Korean fishing vessel in the Port of Montevideo in Uruguay. “For me, was the amount of time that the vessels were missing, when we didn’t know where they are,” Marla Valentine, the illegal fishing and transparency campaign manager for Oceana, told Mongabay in an interview.

As the report says, instances of turning off AIS tend to suggest that vessels are trying to avoid detection while doing something illegal. But over this three-and-a-half year period, there were 6,227 instances - totalling more than 600,000 additional hours - in which fishing vessels appeared to go “dark” by turning off their automatic identification systems (AIS). This week, the conservation NGO Oceana published a report that revealed that 800 foreign vessels racked up a combined 900,000 hours of apparent fishing within 20 nautical miles (37 km) of Argentina’s EEZ between Jan. The most likely reason, the authors say, is to avoid detection while fishing illegally within Argentina’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a span of ocean stretching 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the nation’s shoreline. And now, a new report shows that many of these ships are turning off their satellite tracking systems for extended periods of time.

But there’s a similar scenario playing out off the coast of Argentina: each year, hundreds of foreign-owned vessels are also traveling here to fish for species like Argentine shortfin squid ( Illex argentinus ) and Argentine red shrimp ( Pleoticus muelleri ). Last year, news of a fleet of about 300 Chinese fishing vessels swarming around the Galápagos Islands, possibly to fish illegally, grabbed the attention of the world.

It also notes that more than half of the dark vessels engaged with other ships at sea, most likely to transfer illegally caught fish without needing to go to port. The report also documents that more than 30% of dark vessels eventually traveled to the Port of Montevideo in neighboring Uruguay, a location favored by those involved in illegal fishing.While China had the highest number of incidences of AIS gaps, the report notes that the Spanish fleet went dark three times as often as the Chinese fleet, and that they spent nearly twice as long with no AIS signal as they did visibly fishing.When ships turn off their AIS, there is a strong likelihood that they’re engaging in some kind of illegal activity, such as entering Argentina’s EEZ to illegally fish, the report suggests.A new report from the NGO Oceana revealed that 800 foreign vessels from China, Taiwan, South Korea and Spain conducted 900,000 hours of visible fishing near Argentina’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), but that there were more than 600,000 additional hours in which fishing vessels went “dark” by turning off their automatic identification systems (AIS).

Fishing in the dark year